Many aircraft include secure local area networks, including both wired and wireless networks. Such networks are secured by the use of digital certificates for authorized devices. The airline owner of such aircraft is responsible for maintaining a certificate revocation list for each network identifying previously authorized devices (i.e., devices assigned a valid digital certificate) which are no longer allowed access to such network. There has been an increased use of tablets or other types of portable electric devices (PED) as electronic flight bags (EFBs). Any PED used as an EFB must have an appropriate digital certificate to gain access to the aircraft wireless network. However, such PEDs, due to the portable nature thereof, are sometimes misplaced, lost or stolen. Because of the potential security breach when an authorized PED is misplaced, lost or stolen, airlines are required to immediately deactivate the aircraft's wireless networks until a Certificate Revocation List is updated, typically at the next regularly scheduled maintenance date. The maintenance and administration of the Certificate Revocation List can be labor intensive. In addition, the deactivation of the wireless networks can result in hardship to the crew and maintenance support staff due to the inability to access the wireless networks.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for providing secure access to a wireless network which overcomes the problems recited above.